Kun Lan
Kun Lan (クン ・ ラン, Kun Ran) is the central antagonist of killer7. As the director and embodiment of the Heaven Smile terrorist organization, he is responsible for nearly all of the game's major events. He is the best friend and eternal rival of his equal and opposing force, Harman Smith, who represents Western civilization and culture where Kun represents Eastern civilization and culture; Kun is also a creative force while Harman is a destructive one. Appearance and Personality Kun Lan appears as a nominally Asian man with sallow gray skin. He wears a suit with a bright green jacket at all times, perhaps to contrast with the more reserved dark clothing of Harman Smith. Though normally cruel, Kun Lan is prone to occasional bursts of mania. Story Origins Kun Lan is the reincarnation of the Buddhist temptation demon Mara Papima. He was born a fully grown man in Tibet in 1750, and the son of a governor. By the age of 3, Kun Lan had already become worshiped and recognized as a leader of underground organizations due to his demonhood. It can be presumed that he was always in possession of the God Hand. Travels Kun Lan traveled around the world meeting with various underground organizations using fake passports. In 1758, Kun Lan was in America when he met a young Harman Smith, then known as Harman Deltahead. Kun Lan introduced himself as Harman's neighbor. Ten years later, when Susan was killed, Kun Lan guided Harman to the scene of the crime, which lead to Harman's first encounter with the effects of his Multifoliate Personae Phenomenon and led him down the path to becoming a killer. They would meet again on the roof of the Union Hotel in 1774, where Kun Lan acted as a medium for Dimitri Nightmare to speak through. This lead to Harman and Kun's close relationship, as after this they met for tea regularly. The same year, Kun Lan lost his Tibetan citizenship. Kun Lan's successive actions during Harman's development into Smith and back are unknown, though at some point in his life he studied at a prestigious American university. It is known that he was still close with Harman Deltahead when he became the principal of Coburn Elementary School, as they played chess there, starting a long tradition. It was in one of these games that Kun Lan and Harman were both killed, in 1820. Ascension While the Kun Lan who was killed at Coburn would not resurrect until 1955, this did not stop him from continuing to manifest in the meantime. In 1946, following World War II, young politician Toru Fukushima received a mysterious call from a representative of the United Nations Party; it is suggested that the identity of the caller was Kun Lan, the man-behind-the-man of the Party, setting very long-term events into motion to shape the world and slowly worsen the relationship between Japan and other countries, particularly the US. It is also suggested that Kun Lan may have lent his powers to the creation of the Yakumo, if it is indeed supernatural. Following the return of Harman Smith and the formation of the Second Smith Syndicate, Kun Lan resumed his role of best friend, enemy and chess partner to Harman. Between Harman's Syndicate and Kun Lan's political machinations, both were playing for much higher stakes, and in the rare occasions that Kun Lan would win a game, Harman would make a major political concession to him. In one such occasion in 1973, Harman conceded control over the major cities of the west coast of the United States. It can be presumed that somewhere around this time, Kun Lan enlisted the aid of Curtis Blackburn, who would become a long-time ally of his. Dan Smith was sent to Seattle to help establish Curtis' control, and Kun Lan's by proxy. At some unknown point in time, Kun Lan worked as a taxi driver in Japan. Heaven Smile Kun Lan's long-term battle against the Second Smith Syndicate began in 1982, in Madison Square Garden, where he unleashed the first iterations of the Heaven Smiles - prototype Heaven Smiles and Mask Smiles. MASK de Smith fought them and won, but this would be only the first of many such confrontations. In 1990, in southern France, the next iteration, the Rollout Heaven Smiles appeared, which were also defeated. It is suggested that the Smiths did not actually see Kun Lan face-to-face, however. By the beginning of 2003, the Heaven Smiles were fully developed and ready to be used for terrorism. In the interim, he had worked with scientists such as Mr. A to create a technology to alter the characteristics of the God Hand's light. This technology was put into place in a factory somewhere in Asia and created many different kinds of Heaven Smiles. However, Kun Lan betrayed the scientists after the technology was finished. He set up the Gatekeeper in charge of the Vinculum Gate and the Colosseum, where Heaven Smiles are tested - for this reason, it may be the aforementioned factory. The Smiles were debuted at the United Nations during the signing of the World Security Treaty; one of the attendees was a Smile in disguise, and blew up on stage. This was Kun Lan's declaration of terror; however, the world was not aware of his identity. A Jack Foley interview with Mr. A revealed the circumstances behind Heaven Smile's creation, but his identity was not revealed in the interview. Kun Lan continued to commit terrorism with the Smiles while waiting for the Smiths to appear and oppose him. ''killer7'' When Harman Smith recovered from an injury in 2010, the killer7 began to combat the Heaven Smiles. They were sent to a new Heaven Smile headquarters, the "Celtic" Building, with the instructions of capturing the chief alive - they were provided a picture of Kun Lan for reference. Kun Lan waited on a high floor of the building, projecting his avatar, the Angel. Harman saw through his trick and coaxed out Kun Lan, and they confronted eachother. Harman shot Kun Lan's God Hand, but Kun merely caught the bullet and flew to the Space Needle, on which he gave a speech about the world to Harman, beginning their battle that lasted over the next year. Kun Lan is next seen manipulating the UN Party; he uses his God Hand to give a newfound confidence to a Kenjiro Matsuoka who is about to shoot himself. After this, however, Kun Lan is not seen for most of the game; instead, the Smiths confront various people who acted under or were manipulated by Kun Lan, such as the UN Party and Curtis Blackburn. He does briefly appear at the end of Target04: Alter Ego after the credits to the in-universe killer7 roll, implying that he was playing online against the Smiths. In Target05: Smile, Garcian Smith walks into the Forbidden Room and sees that Harman and Kun Lan are still playing chess; Kun Lan tells a strange story about a "boy with a promising future". However, when he notices Garcian, he bursts into uncontrollable laughter. Despite being the antagonist of the game, Kun Lan is never properly fought; instead, during another chess game, he and Harman are both unceremoniously shot by a younger incarnation of Harman. Future In Shanghai in the year 2115, Harman Smith and Kun Lan reappeared and began their battle once again. Smith Syndicates continue to emerge to battle manifestations of Kun Lan's Heaven Smiles; as the timeline puts it, "The chess game between Harman Smith and Kun Lan never ends, fearing HIS apparition . . . ." Powers and abilities As a veritable god, Kun Lan has a great deal of sheer power, most of which is derived from his God Hand, which glows bright white when he uses it. Early in the game he demonstrates the ability to catch bullets with it, but more importantly, he uses it to transform regular humans into Heaven Smiles. Its light can be filtered using technology to change the shape of the resulting Smiles. He also uses it to instill confidence in Kenjiro Matsuoka, stopping him from killing himself. In addition to these more direct powers, Kun Lan is able to influence the state of the world through both magical and political means. He is also ageless and continues to reincarnate, as evidenced by the epilogue 100 years after the end of the main action in killer7. Relationship to Harman Smith Kun Lan has a strong friendship and rivalry with Harman Smith, with whom he wages a constant ideological, political and cosmic war. The two have confronted each other numerous times and in a variety of ways, from the brief skirmish at the beginning of Angel to the seemingly endless chain of chess matches they play together. During their chess games, they engage in verbal battles as well, both having philosophical discussions and trying to undermine each other psychologically, as evidenced by Kun telling Harman a disturbing story in an effort to unnerve him, and Harman taunting Kun with "Do you know why always lose? ...because you're a bad player." Kun and Harman may be very carefully balanced counterweights to each other, each ensuring the other is unable to use their vast power to gain too great a hold on the world. According to Suda, their eternal battles represent the futility of war. Alternate Kun Lans It is subtly suggested that, much like Harman, there are multiple Kun Lans in addition to the main manifestation we see manipulating politics and battling Harman. One major clue pointing to this is the event in which the Harman and Kun Lan who were killed at Coburn resurrect after other manifestations of them had already been acting. In Target 06: Lion, Emir Parkreiner hunts down the Last Shot Smile, who looks exactly like Iwazaru but with Kun Lan's face. Although Hand in killer7 offers up contradictory info regarding this entity, the characters section lists him as Kun Lan. It is possible that the extra manifestation of Kun Lan that resurrected in 1955 became Iwazaru and joined up with the Smith Syndicate, serving a submissive position to Harman, hence his gimp suit. Furthermore, Jaco Checkbox claims that the "real" Kun Lan is a senile old man kept around by the American government under the city of Atlanta. Supposedly, Jaco went to kill this version of him in 2010. Etymology Kun Lan's name is somewhat similar to "Kunlun," a name of a chain of mountains in China. Official Website Description Category:Characters in killer7 Category:Males Category:Antagonists